Dublin Author Ezio Fusco Publishes New Book on Food, Family and Emigration

DUBLIN, IRELAND, August 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Dublin-based author Ezio Fusco has published his third book, The Beauty of Ancient Food in the Dying Light: A Story of Life, Love and Food, a personal account of how food held an Italian immigrant family together across four generations in Ireland.

The book follows the Fusco family from their arrival in Dublin from a small valley in Italy, through decades of change, using food as the thread that connects grandparents, parents and grandchildren separated by distance and time. It looks closely at what happens inside a family when its members are forced to leave home, and at how the habits of the kitchen become one of the few things that can be carried forward. At its centre is the pain of memory felt by family members once they are separated, and the lengths people will go to in order to hold on to what was lost.

𝗙𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗪𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗙𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗧𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿

“When one has to leave their place of birth, serious changes develop within the family,” said Fusco. “Each needs to be addressed by the parents or older matriarch. The values of the family need to be taught in a way that the young will remember.”

Fusco said he wrote the book with that idea at its centre, and hopes readers who have left their own home country, for any reason, will recognise something of their own experience in it.

“Any grouping of immigrants moving to any other country would resonate with the issues highlighted within this collection,” Fusco said. “In a very disturbed world, these issues are felt more than ever today.”

He added that while the themes may resonate most strongly with older readers who have already raised families of their own, the book was written simply enough for a younger audience as well.

𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱

Fusco, 70, said the book began as something closer to a personal record than a public project. It was written mainly for his grandson, Luca.

“Somebody had to write this stuff down for him to read whenever it suited him,” Fusco said. “The time will come when he will want to ask questions, and I’m hoping to provide answers for him.”

That original purpose still shapes the tone of the book, which reads as a personal account of one family’s history rather than a general study of Italian immigration to Ireland.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗘𝘇𝗶𝗼 𝗙𝘂𝘀𝗰𝗼

Ezio Fusco is a fourth-generation member of the Fusco family in Dublin, born to Italian parents. As a teenager in the 1970s, he helped Italian immigrants in Dublin with visa paperwork and dealings with the Aliens Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs, an experience that gave him an early, close view of what emigration asks of a family.

He has since worked in restaurant food and film production, and today he still works daily in Dublin, driving a limousine and giving private tours of the city’s historical sites. He has also worked alongside researchers connected to the Monte Cassino scriptorium, studying material related to historian Herbert Bloch’s 1939 research, an interest that grew out of his own family’s roots in Italy, which he traces back to 778 AD. That research work has connected him over the years with academics including Dr. John Mulcahy, a gastronomy tourism researcher, Dr. Andy Wall of Hibernia College, Dame Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, and Dr. John Patterson of Oxford University, all of whom have supported and encouraged his writing.

“Support family bonding and relations no matter the distance apart,” Fusco said, describing his hope for readers. “Keep the family strong. Carry our history with us always.”

The Beauty of Ancient Food in the Dying Light is Fusco’s third book. He lives in Dublin with his wife, Mary.

𝗔𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆

The Beauty of Ancient Food in the Dying Light: A Story of Life, Love and Food by Ezio Fusco is available now.

Bracken Joseph
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